The difference between WoW and FF14

[Nixxe]

I don't think I'm being sensitive. I also don't have an issue with other people being sensitive. I have an issue with the culture of the game being oversensitive. Obviously it's not cool to flame people and be a jerk, or to be racist and things of that nature. What I was getting at, is that, IMO, there is over-reporting issue. The ToS is ridiculous when it comes to what can be reported. Lot's of people have already commented on this issue in this thread and lots of other threads. People are, a lot of the time, just unwilling to communicate in game for fear of being reported; and this has led to the game feeling empty and lonely at times, not all the time, but sometimes.

The forums are a nexus for complaints. We not only get just one side of the story, carefully presented to best support the aggrieved player, but also see an inordinate concentration of rare occurrences. The forums are good for inventing problems that don't exist, as well as exaggerating relatively minor ones that do.

However, if you look in-game, people talk a lot in FC, in linkshells, in shout, etc. The only real deficit I can see in this game compared to something like WoW is that FFXIV has nothing equivalent to Trade chat. Shout is zone locked and all global channels are invite-only for a small and mostly static roster. People talk though. They ask and answer questions, make jokes, and even get in arguments. There was so much fighting over the most asinine stuff in Eureka over the train and then the chain and then the train again, as well as many other things. If the TOS is overreaching and having some sort of chilling effect, I'd be hard pressed to make such a case. Things seem completely fine.

Additionally, it's not like I'm some sickeningly nice carebear nor are the people I know, and I don't believe any of us have ever been penalized for something said in chat. We mostly just avoid picking fights and keep questionable humor to ourselves, which is probably the goal of the TOS in the first place. I've never felt like I couldn't say something reasonable because of the TOS, though it has made me reconsider saying some things I probably shouldn't have said anyway. It's really not the problem people make it out to be, but if you can really feel its limitations, perhaps you need to reconsider whether or not what you want to say is appropriate for this setting anyway. SE has every right to set rules to curate a particular experience for their customers and you have no similar right to damage their product by violating those rules. If you find it to be too much, maybe this isn't the product for you.

[HumanNinjaToo]

SE has every right to set rules to curate a particular experience for their customers and you have no similar right to damage their product by violating those rules. If you find it to be too much, maybe this isn't the product for you.

Or maybe I understand the difference between publishing platform and public forum.

Also, I am not trying to make excuses for people to be jerks to each other; maybe I'm not reading you correctly, but it seems like you are trying to pigeon-hole me into an instigator role, and that's not me.

The point I'm trying to make is that even constructive criticism is reportable and punishable according to game's ToS. However, SE claims no publisher's rights, and instead presents its in-game chat and forum as a public forum. This means that SE is not actually liable for any comments made by one player to another. If they aren't liable, then they really have no reason to police the chat so adamantly.

I fail to see why my view on the matter seems to ruffle your feathers in such a way.

[Nixxe]

If they aren't liable, then they really have no reason to police the chat so adamantly.

If the game environment is unpleasant, it hurts their bottom line. What matters to SE is dollars, not whether or not you feel stifled.

You haven't ruffled my feathers at all. Read my posts in a monotone if you must.

[HumanNinjaToo]

If the game environment is unpleasant, it hurts their bottom line. What matters to SE is dollars, not whether or not you feel stifled.

The flip side of that coin is that too much censorship can also lead to an unpleasant game environment, which could also lead to people leaving the game and therefor negatively impacting the SE wallet. I am not saying you are wrong necessarily, I'm saying that too much in either direction is a bad thing; and that too much censorship tends to be a really bad thing.

You haven't ruffled my feathers at all. Read my posts in a monotone if you must.

My mistake then.

[Nixxe]

The flip side of that coin is that too much censorship can also lead to an unpleasant game environment, which could also lead to people leaving the game and therefor negatively impacting the SE wallet. I am not saying you are wrong necessarily, I'm saying that too much in either direction is a bad thing; and that too much censorship tends to be a really bad thing.

Sure, but I've already addressed that. There's no evidence of "too much" outside of the forums, which naturally lend themselves to magnifying negativity. The in-game experience is what matters and I see little evidence that the TOS is having any discernible negative impact on that. The overall nature and quality of the chat isn't drastically different from any other game I've played, except as a consequence of how chat channels are structured, and some of those games are practically free-for-alls for one reason or another.

[HumanNinjaToo]

Sure, but I've already addressed that. There's no evidence of "too much" outside of the forums, which naturally lend themselves to magnifying negativity. The in-game experience is what matters and I see little evidence that the TOS is having any discernible negative impact on that. The overall nature and quality of the chat isn't drastically different from any other game I've played, except as a consequence of how chat channels are structured, and some of those games are practically free-for-alls for one reason or another.

Maybe this is your experience, however, your experience is not everyone else's experience. I think if it was such an isolated issue I wouldn't be reading it on the forums every day and hearing about it in-game as often as I do.

[Nixxe]

Maybe this is your experience, however, your experience is not everyone else's experience. I think if it was such an isolated issue I wouldn't be reading it on the forums every day and hearing about it in-game as often as I do.

Which is bad reasoning on your part. As I already explained, the forums naturally lend themselves to magnifying negativity. You also only get one carefully-presented side. Astonishingly, people tend to feel their actions were justified and frequently unabashedly lie even when they know they were in the wrong.

[Saintly]

The flip side of that coin is that too much censorship can also lead to an unpleasant game environment, which could also lead to people leaving the game and therefor negatively impacting the SE wallet.

This.
Currently they damage their own game by giving in to the crybabies and the report abuse.

[jameseoakes]

This.
Currently they damage their own game by giving in to the crybabies and the report abuse.

Getting reported is only an issue if your being abusive, I know of no one who got pulled before GMs without some kind of good reason.